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“Hmm.” Brynnie chewed on her lower lip thoughtfully. “Some loves die hard. Never go away. Oh, they can be put on hold or people can pretend they don’t exist, but it’s all a big lie and one day you look in the mirror and face the fact that the love of your life might slip away if you don’t do something.”
“Are you talking about you and Dad?” Bliss asked woodenly. This woman might soon become her stepmother, but, as far as Bliss was concerned, she had no right to hand out advice, especially on the subject of love.
“Right now, I’m talking about you.” Brynnie drained her cup as John’s boots pounded up the back steps to the porch. “You and Mason Lafferty. You can lie to yourself, if you want to, but it won’t do any good. Besides, he’s a good man and single.”
Bliss bit her tongue to keep from saying something harsh about Brynnie being involved with her father while he was married.
“That marriage didn’t seem to take. Over real quick. He and Terri split up years ago.” She pointed an accusatory red-polished fingernail in Bliss’s direction. “If you ask me, now that he’s back in town, Mason Lafferty is the best catch in Bittersweet. Well, next to your father and my own boys, of course.”
“Of course,” Bliss said drily as Brynnie shoved back her chair and the legs scraped against yellowed linoleum.
“My boys, now, they’re good men, but land’s sake, I pity the women they end up with.” She shook her head. “I swear the twins were enough to nearly send me over the edge when they were in high school. But that’s neither here nor now.”
“Stay away from Lafferty, Blissie,” John ordered as the screen door creaked open and he walked into the kitchen in his stocking feet. Pausing at the counter, he poured himself a cup of coffee.
“I’m not involved with Mason,” she replied.
“I’m not blind, y’know. I see how you look at him.”
“Give me a break,” Bliss said, though she felt a blush steal up the back of her neck. Was it possible that she was so transparent?
“I shouldn’t have to remind you that it was his fault you nearly—”
“No, Dad, you’re wrong,” she said vehemently. “Mason saved my life. I think we’ve had this conversation before.” Bliss stood and tossed the dregs of her barely touched coffee down the drain. Though she was furious with Mason for sneaking around behind her father’s back to buy his ranch, she wasn’t going to let John accuse him falsely. She slid her empty cup into the dishwasher. “Don’t worry about me. I can take care of myself.”
“Don’t give me all that feminist mumbo jumbo. Women need men to take care of them. Good men,” John said. Then, the minute the words were uttered, he looked as if he wished he could swallow them back again.
Bliss blanched. She thought of her mother and the years of betrayal she’d borne; of Brynnie, in love with one man while marrying others; of herself, never quite over a silly schoolgirl crush on Mason Lafferty. “I…I don’t believe that,” Bliss said.
“Neither do I.” Brynnie’s eyes had filled with tears and her chin wobbled. “John—”
“Ah, blast it all, anyway.” He rubbed a hand over his head, making his silvering hair stand on end. “What I meant was, Bliss, you could do better.”
Just like your mother could have. The unspoken words hung in the air like forgotten cobwebs, visible one minute, hidden the next in the shifting light of mixed emotions.
“Well, uh…” Brynnie cleared her throat and dug into her purse for her cigarettes. “I heard you met Tiffany the other day.”
“Tiffany?” Bliss repeated, still stung by her father’s statement.
“Yes. When you visited Mason.”
“You saw Mason and Tiffany?” John’s mouth pulled downward.
“I don’t think—” Bliss cut herself short as she remembered visiting Mason at his apartment. “Does Tiffany own an old Victorian in the middle of town?”
“Didn’t you know?” Brynnie found her pack of cigarettes and shook out a filter tip.
“No, I…” So that explain
ed the other woman’s cool, stunned reaction to her.
“I ran into Octavia—that’s her grandmother—down at the beauty parlor and she mentioned you’d been over.”
“Is that right?” John said.
“I didn’t realize she was Tiffany. I mean, I introduced myself and she didn’t give me her name, just looked shocked and pointed out Mason’s apartment.”
“So you went visiting him?” He sighed wearily. “You’re a smart girl, Bliss. I hoped you’d learned your lessons with that one.”
